leetchisgod

Add me to this list. Indian born, US raised, parents with nothing more than a high school education, and now a grad student. Father was a taxi driver, some of the kids at my school would make fun of that fact, mother still is a clerk at the local stop and shop. I always hated how people looked down at her while she was working, I went to school in a fairly snobbish school district, at least now she can say her son is a grad student doing a PhD, I'd like to see the look on people's faces when she says that. Been a tough road. Dad started switched into real estate before I began college, business failed during the summer of my first year. Second year, he was diagnosed with cancer. 3rd year finally realized I didn't want to study business. Got myself accepted to the Boston University summer abroad program, studied politics in London loved it. Decided that I would do that from now on, against dad's wishes who thought that Wall Street people were the only successful people in the world, having driven them around for a while. Worked with my dad after that, on commission, as well as a call center. Decided to go do a masters in the UK, a bit hard when you're coming in with a 2.78/4.00, luckily I had great references, got in, with some money. Worked at the book store while there, got my masters at Surrey got a 3.90/4.00. My supervisor, and the awesome staff there, no one was up their own ass, encouraged me to do a PhD, something I always wanted to do. Told me to apply for some top schools, but I didn't think I'd fit in with the toffs, plus the critical IR/constructivism is more based in Canada. So, my first choice was Alberta, I got in, don't think there will be too many stuck up people there. It should be fun. But yea, when I get this completed, I'm so going to take numbers and kick ass, even if my parents don't completely understand why I want to do this, and they think that there's no money in it.

Thanks. Good luck to everyone still waiting, there's still hope!

Hopefully it posts a response this time around. Good news, for me, and possibly for many of you. I was on the wait list at Alberta, and I got accepted. Not only accepted but also received a great scholarship package, at least 21k each year for the next 4 years, which is great for a Canadian school. But yea, wait list doesn't necessarily mean the end of the world, especially in terms of funding. Yay!

I think as far was critical IR is concerned, I found myself looking pretty much at Canada and the UK. I just don't think most American departments are accepting of heterodox thinking, and didn't bother applying. I did manage to get a placement in Alberta, who were very welcoming of critical/constructivist approaches.

I'm in the same situation. I found out I was first on the wait list at my first choice as well. I was happy that I had at least been wait listed, but I'm pretty nervous about getting an acceptance. Fortunately, it's not a first ranked program, but high enough to be competitive. I'm hoping someone goes elsewhere and opens up a spot for me. I think it'd be a perfect fit for me there. Good luck to both of us.

I'm more or less looking for a definitive rejection, so I'm on the other side, lol. I need to know I'm out, so I need to find fellow rejectees.

Anyone hear anything from Queens, I don't think the status update method on their site is very helpful. It tells you that if you are accepted, your status will change to "offer" or "conditional offer", but they don't tell you anything about rejections. If you get rejected would it say rejected, or will the current "application complete" status remain. I think it would have been so much better if they had put "decision pending" like most other schools do. That way I'd have some idea about what's going on. The way it's currently set up, if you don't have an offer, the automatic default is a rejection but unfortunately, they don't confirm this in any way.

Anyone been accepted to Aberta for a phd, but choosing elsewhere? Give me hope!

Just found out that I'm first on the wait list for political science at Alberta. I'm curious, do they normally send out more acceptances in case someone doesn't accept, or do they send just the right amount and normally fill open spots with the wait list.

Any international applicants get a response from Alberta yet? I was told that the decision would most likely be made sometime during the first week of March, but the online site is still listing my application decision as "decision pending". I've also been told by some Canadians that universities usually notify in province students first, followed by out of province and then, international. I'm apparently at the bottom of some pile somewhere, or maybe just been forgotten.

Update: apparently, the means by which Canadians schools dole out their rejections is in province, out of province, and then international students, maybe that's why my rejection is taking a while to hit.

Background: I sent an e-mail to my potential supervisor and asked how long do you think it will take for me to get a decision? He informs me by the end of the week, or at the latest the end of next week, the first week of march. That has come and gone. I just found out someone found out about their rejection a few days ago or was it last week, via online update. Now, I've been checking every day, every hour more like, and mine still says decision pending. I know I should be realistic and accept that this could be because my application is at the bottom of some pile, and they just haven't gotten around to it, or they've just forgotten me, but, why do they have to build up my hope like this?!

Thanks for the insights. It's good to hear that other people have had the same concern, but have been adequately reassured. I sense that should be enough for this application round. Hopefully with any luck I won't have to worry about this the second time around, but if there is a second round, I'll definitely take this advice and make sure to prepare my application to include something to put everything into context.

My rejection letters would always come with some type of silver lining. http://www.eway.com/catalog/6/4658764_id.jpg

Yes. I applied to 4, and I'm slowly learning my lesson. I guess I could start applying back in the UK, at least they don't make you pay any application fees.

Well, I guess that works, the school I went to is decent enough in the UK, hopefully that works for me. More importantly, let's hope they look at my undergrad grades and think it's UK marking, those first two years were absolute hell (family issues), I'm surprised I made it through at all.

This is always a frustrating topic. Going from bachelors in the US, to a masters in the UK wasn't too bad. Most departments there knew how the US GPA system roughly works, although the BU grade deflations needed to be explained a bit more. For my PhD I'm applying to schools in Canada and I'm slightly worried that my 67 (including a 76 on my dissertation) might not be viewed in the same manner it would have been in the UK. I know Canada also uses a 1-100 scale, but the grading there is slightly inflated as compared to the UK. In the UK, it's very difficult to get over a 70, and nearly impossible to get anything over an 80. Do you think that having faculty at the department I've applied to, who did some of their studies in the UK ought to be enough to allow for a better understanding of my marks? Or should I try to find a some official type of conversion, if any is available (and if there is, please let me know where to find it), and include it with future applications. God damn, I should have thought about this BEFORE applying, but there might be another chance to apply some of this learning.

I've done that with some of my rejections, if you're paying $80+ per application, you want to make damn sure you learn something about your application, because I just don't have the money to shell out on a weak app. McMaster informed me that they can't discuss the details because it's "confidential and comparative". But he did boost my confidence by saying it wasn't because my application was junk, which was my biggest worry. Hopefully it works out somewhere so I won't necessarily have to use my learning from this round of applications.